Friday, July 15, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - When U.S. and Soviet space vessels met in orbit in 1975, a handshake was heralded as a symbolic step toward a future of international space-travel cooperation. Astronauts and cosmonauts of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft said Thursday that their mission led directly to the cooperation necessary for the international space station and other multinational projects.

'I am convinced that all future flights will be international,' cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov said at a NASA-sponsored ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the first manned space flight managed jointly by two nations. 'It's possible that an international crew would land on Mars.'"